The proposed research is concerned with the basic processes that underlie the use of information in forming impressions and making inferences. The research is based in large part on a general theoretical formulation of social information processing. The work to be conducted in the proposed grant period will continue to investigate issues we have begun to explore in the preceding period, including: (1) the factors that determine how information about people and events is encoded into memory and the effects of this encoding o subsequent judgments, (2) the cognitive representation of persons, with particular emphasis on those formed from information conveyed in informal conversations, (3) the cognitive representation of social events, and (4) the cognitive representation of personal experiences. A multiplicity of procedures will be used, which range from judgment data to recall , recognition, and reaction time data, to assess the manner in which information is organized in memory and the ese of retrieving it for use in making judgments. The research to be conducted will generally bear on implications of the theoretical formulation we have proposed. On the other hand, the research will be germane to several fundamental questions related to the encoding, organization, and retrieval operations that are strongly emphasized in recent attempts to develop process models of social perception.